Mat's Entertainment - concert reviewshttp://matsentertainment.com/
http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specificationBlogEngine.NET 2.0.0.36en-UShttp://matsentertainment.com/opml.axdMy nameMat's Entertainment0.0000000.000000Steve Martin and Martin Short show great comedy knows no age<p><img src="http://matsentertainment.com/image.axd?picture=2017%2f8%2fSteve+Martin+and+Martin+Short.jpg" /></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: #444444; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;">Great comedy is ageless. For proof look no further than Steve Martin (71) and Martin Short (67) who brought their standup/concert/variety show to the Fox Theatre on July 20.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: #444444; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;">Billed as both &ldquo;A Night You&rsquo;ll Forget for the Rest of Your Life&rdquo; and &ldquo;See Them Before They&rsquo;re Dead!&rdquo;, the duo proved to have as much zip and relevance as ever as they told jokes, sang songs and reflected upon their lives in show business.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: #444444; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;">The pair first met 30 years ago on the set of &ldquo;Three Amigos,&rdquo; which, of course, was given a nice little tribute as three audience members were brought up on stage and taught the famous Amigos Salute.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: #444444; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;">It&rsquo;s fair to say the pair have different comedic styles, as Martin has always been more intellectual and absurdist, while Short tends to be zanier &mdash;&nbsp;doing goofy characters and impersonations.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: #444444; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;">But just like chocolate and peanut butter, these two great tastes taste even better together. This was probably best illustrated at one point in the night where Short came out and did a brilliant and completely silly bit as human bagpipes, after which Martin stepped forward and deadpanned, &ldquo;The fact that you laughed at that makes me disappointed in all of you.&rdquo;</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: #444444; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;">The show started off with the pair on stage exchanging good-natured insults before they sat down for a walk down memory lane. Both Martin and Short are gifted story tellers and they traded tales of celebrity encounters and funny little stories about how strange it is to be famous in Hollywood.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: #444444; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;">They then gave up the stage to each other, as Short did several musical bits accompanied by Steve Babko on piano, topping it off with a hilarious take on Broadway in the 1970s.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: #444444; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;">Then it was Martin&rsquo;s turn to show off his skill with the banjo. Martin has used the banjo in his act going all the way back to the very beginning, but it is only within the past few years where he has started performing original bluegrass tunes, this time with the fantastic band the Steep Canyon Rangers. At one point, Martin ceded the stage to the Rangers, who brought the crowd to their feet with a particularly rousing performance.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: #444444; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;">For the rest of the show, Short and Martin swapped bits, sometimes by themselves and other times together. But, the laughs never let up.</p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; color: #444444; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px; font-family: &quot;Open Sans&quot;, sans-serif;">Really, this show had everything you would want from spending two hours with a pair of comedy greats who are still at the top of their game and enjoy being in each other&rsquo;s company. It was a night I will have a hard time forgetting for the rest of my life.</p>http://matsentertainment.com/post/2017/08/02/Steve-Martin-and-Martin-Short-show-great-comedy-knows-no-age.aspx
http://matsentertainment.com/post/2017/08/02/Steve-Martin-and-Martin-Short-show-great-comedy-knows-no-age.aspx#commenthttp://matsentertainment.com/post.aspx?id=87ef7bcc-b3fe-4b37-ad45-ad2190d075fdWed, 02 Aug 2017 09:41:00 -0800concert reviewsMat DeKinderhttp://matsentertainment.com/pingback.axdhttp://matsentertainment.com/post.aspx?id=87ef7bcc-b3fe-4b37-ad45-ad2190d075fd0http://matsentertainment.com/trackback.axd?id=87ef7bcc-b3fe-4b37-ad45-ad2190d075fdhttp://matsentertainment.com/post/2017/08/02/Steve-Martin-and-Martin-Short-show-great-comedy-knows-no-age.aspx#commenthttp://matsentertainment.com/syndication.axd?post=87ef7bcc-b3fe-4b37-ad45-ad2190d075fdMuch too old to feel this damn young: An evening with Garth Brooks<p><img src="http://matsentertainment.com/image.axd?picture=2014%2f12%2fGarth+Brooks.jpg" /></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">You will be hard-pressed to find someone who enjoys a Garth Brooks concert more than Garth Brooks. Of course that makes the audience, who already loved him, just love him that much more; and this feedback loop of us loving Garth, loving us, loving Garth rises to an ear-shattering, heart-pounding crescendo that makes his shows such a legendary experience.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">Such was the case at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis on Friday night as Garth logged his second of four consecutive sold-out shows in the arena. For nearly two-and-a-half hours the country music megastar ripped through his greatest hits catalog, mixed in a few tracks from his new album and even ceded the stage for four songs to his lovely and talented wife Trisha Yearwood.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">This marks a comeback tour of sorts for Garth who, aside from a semi-regular gig in Vegas, has spent the better part of two decades off of the road raising his daughters. He seems determined to make up for lost time as he whooped, hollered, sprinted and sweated his way through some of country music&rsquo;s most iconic songs of the past 20 years.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">For myself, Garth Brooks is the most demystified celebrity around. At roughly 15 years my senior, Garth grew up only a handful of miles from where I did. We both attended Oklahoma State University (Go Pokes!) and Garth cast a shadow over my formative years as the hometown-boy-made-good.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">In Garth&rsquo;s goofy, aw-shucks, life-of-the-party stage presence I see traces of friends and family I have known my whole life. Garth&rsquo;s just the guy who put it all together and somehow turned it into international fame and fortune. I&rsquo;ve never loved Garth Brooks, but I&rsquo;ve always respected the holy hell out of the guy.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">His music has been a little too on-the-nose and pop-country for my tastes, but after seeing him live, I have to admit that my respect has blossomed into full-blown admiration.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">There is no denying that he has recorded some truly great songs. &ldquo;Friends in Low Places&rdquo; will be played in bars in mining colonies on Jupiter&rsquo;s moons. Garth still brings it with rockers like &ldquo;Rodeo&rdquo; and &ldquo;Ain&rsquo;t Going Down (&lsquo;Til the Sun Comes Up)&rdquo; and pours every last drop of emotion into weepers like &ldquo;The Dance&rdquo; and &ldquo;Unanswered Prayers.&rdquo;</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">But first and foremost, Garth is a showman. Famous for brining arena-rock spectacle to the starched and stuffy world of country music, the man can work a crowd as well as anyone you will ever see. You get the feeling that he would take personal offence to anyone walking out of the place not grinning from ear to ear.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">He gleefully snatched up a personalized Cardinals jersey from a fan in the crowd and wore it for a good chunk of the show to the delighted, boisterous approval of the hometown fans. Garth knows what the people want and he is more than happy to give it to them.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">Garth Brooks may be a little older and a little wiser since his last world tour, but he doesn&rsquo;t seem to have missed a beat. With the help of a tight and lively backing band, he delivered what would be considered an energetic and enthused performance for a man half his age.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">Garth loves the limelight and his fans love seeing him there, and from the looks of things, this is a love affair with no end in sight. Party on, Garth.&nbsp;</p>http://matsentertainment.com/post/2014/12/09/Much-too-old-to-feel-this-damn-young-An-evening-with-Garth-Brooks.aspx
http://matsentertainment.com/post/2014/12/09/Much-too-old-to-feel-this-damn-young-An-evening-with-Garth-Brooks.aspx#commenthttp://matsentertainment.com/post.aspx?id=5997499a-0bd9-4746-9c00-35445dc0d747Tue, 09 Dec 2014 18:59:00 -0800concert reviewsMat DeKinderhttp://matsentertainment.com/pingback.axdhttp://matsentertainment.com/post.aspx?id=5997499a-0bd9-4746-9c00-35445dc0d7470http://matsentertainment.com/trackback.axd?id=5997499a-0bd9-4746-9c00-35445dc0d747http://matsentertainment.com/post/2014/12/09/Much-too-old-to-feel-this-damn-young-An-evening-with-Garth-Brooks.aspx#commenthttp://matsentertainment.com/syndication.axd?post=5997499a-0bd9-4746-9c00-35445dc0d747Pearl Jam delivers marathon concert of joyful precision <p><img src="http://matsentertainment.com/image.axd?picture=2014%2f10%2fPearl+Jam+(1).jpg" /></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">Pearl Jam had been the last major band remaining on my concert bucket list. A combination of bad timing, lack of resources and cluelessness over the past 20 years had left me on the outside looking in.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">This grievous oversight in my concert-going record was rectified Friday night at the Scotttrade Center in St. Louis, and holy smokes was it worth the wait.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">Said wait turned out to be about 30 minutes longer than I had expected, but no one seemed to mind much with Game 1 of the NLDS being piped in to the two huge screens positioned on either side of the stage and the hometown Cardinals in the middle of an improbable rally against the Dodgers.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">I like to think that this was good form on the part of the band (massive sports fans in their own right) to put the crowd in an even better mood before the start of the show.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">Intentional or not, the move worked and when the inning was over out strode Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, Matt Cameron and of course Eddie Vedder to take their places on the stage.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">What unspooled over the next three hours (!) was a breathless, highly-entertaining performance that spanned 34 songs from their past 20-year reign as America&rsquo;s most popular rock band.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">The first thing that struck me about Pearl Jam was how tight they sounded. I expected a more loosey-goosey, punkish vibe from these rebellious kings of the grunge era; but this was a showcase of musical precision to the point that roadies were passing out guitars for the next song before the last song was even finished.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">The band sounded simply fantastic, a framework of stability that allowed the volatile Vedder the freedom to do his thing.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">Let&rsquo;s talk about Eddie Vedder for a moment, shall we? Not only does the guy have one of the most iconic voices in the history of rock whose songwriting style has drawn comparison to everyone from Jim Morrison to Bono, but he also happens to be a blast to watch.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">One minute he&rsquo;ll soulfully be booming out the lyrics to a song like &ldquo;Rearviewmirror&rdquo; or &ldquo;Even Flow,&rdquo; then the next he&rsquo;ll be clowning with Gossard or McCready, then the next he&rsquo;ll take a swig from bottle of wine then spew it into the air like a human geyser and then finally he&rsquo;ll grab the mic to speak to the fans with heartfelt gratitude and humility. And all of this goes on for an entire three hours.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">The set list was a textbook mixture of chart toppers like &ldquo;Better Man,&rdquo; &ldquo;Daughter,&rdquo; &ldquo;Alive&rdquo; and &ldquo;Jeremy&rdquo; (which Vedder dedicated to former St. Louis Blues star Brett Hull), interspersed with smaller hits like &ldquo;Why Go,&rdquo; &ldquo;Do the Evolution&rdquo; and &ldquo;Once&rdquo; and deep cuts like &ldquo;Pilate,&rdquo; &ldquo;Thin Air,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Low Light.&rdquo; Then for the superfans there were a couple of really, really deep cuts, namely &ldquo;Chloe Dancer&rdquo; and &ldquo;Crown of Thorns&rdquo; from Gossard and Ament&rsquo;s old band Mother Love Bone.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">They even threw in a couple of amazing covers as Vedder opened the first encore with a solo, acoustic version of John Lennon&rsquo;s &ldquo;Imagine&rdquo; and then Pearl Jam closed out the evening with a rousing cover of &ldquo;Baba O&rsquo;Riley&rdquo; by The Who. Vedder, an unapologetic Cubs fan, spotted former Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood in the audience and brought him up onstage during the finale to awkwardly play tambourine.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">More than anything the concert was a love-fest between Pearl Jam and their fans. You&rsquo;ll be hard pressed to find a more engaged crowd at any show as the collection of (primarily) middle-aged white dudes sang and fist-pumped along with song after song after song.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">The band more than reciprocated as they took requests and singled out fans who had submitted their joys and concerns, including a woman who held up a sign indicating this to be her 100<sup>th</sup> show to which Vedder attempted to share a drink from his wine bottle, only to be foiled by about 20 feet of railing.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">They even turned around to sing &ldquo;Last Kiss&rdquo; (a cover of a 1961 teen tragedy song that ironically wound up being Pearl Jam&rsquo;s highest charting single) to the fans seated, rather unfortunately, behind the stage.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">The show was nothing short of a tour de force from a band that by all accounts should be past its prime in its check-cashing phase. Pearl Jam has not slowed down and after a single show it is clear why they have some of the most passionate fans of any act touring today. It took me more than two decades to get to my first Pearl Jam show, I have a feeling it will be nowhere near that long before my next one. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>http://matsentertainment.com/post/2014/10/08/Pearl-Jam-delivers-marathon-concert-of-joyful-precision-.aspx
http://matsentertainment.com/post/2014/10/08/Pearl-Jam-delivers-marathon-concert-of-joyful-precision-.aspx#commenthttp://matsentertainment.com/post.aspx?id=a99e4874-00af-41b7-9e9b-a6969d0cabeaWed, 08 Oct 2014 11:33:00 -0800concert reviewsMat DeKinderhttp://matsentertainment.com/pingback.axdhttp://matsentertainment.com/post.aspx?id=a99e4874-00af-41b7-9e9b-a6969d0cabea0http://matsentertainment.com/trackback.axd?id=a99e4874-00af-41b7-9e9b-a6969d0cabeahttp://matsentertainment.com/post/2014/10/08/Pearl-Jam-delivers-marathon-concert-of-joyful-precision-.aspx#commenthttp://matsentertainment.com/syndication.axd?post=a99e4874-00af-41b7-9e9b-a6969d0cabeaSpeaking loudly in the general direction of the Devil: An evening with Motley Crue and Alice Cooper<p><img src="http://matsentertainment.com/image.axd?picture=2014%2f7%2fMotley+Crue.jpg" /></p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">When Motley Crue was at the height of their popularity I was in my formidable tween-aged years and only in the wildest parts of my imagination could I possibly envision what attending one of their concerts would have been like.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">I figured it was somewhere between the mud wrestling scene from &ldquo;Stripes,&rdquo; the local biker bar during happy hour and &ldquo;Night on Bald Mountain&rdquo; from &ldquo;Fantasia.&rdquo;</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">As for Alice Cooper, I was aware that he existed but never dared to look into it further. He was like the VHS covers in the horror movie section of the video store that I would always look at but would never in a million years have the guts to actually watch. Just knowing he was out in the world kinda freaked me out.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">But then I got older and The Crue was defanged by grunge and teenage antipathy. I still respected how hard they rocked and dug the songs, but they were more associated with fist-pumping burnouts in t-top Camaros than anything I considered &ldquo;cool.&rdquo;</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">In regards to Alice Cooper, thanks to &ldquo;Wayne&rsquo;s World&rdquo; and my classic rock phase (which technically has never really ended) I came to realize that he was putting everyone on and that the dude just wrote solid rock songs and loved putting on a show. I also felt super-smart at parties after Marilyn Manson hit and I got to point out that he was basically ripping off Alice&rsquo;s shtick.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">This all leads us to 2014 when Alice Cooper and Motley Crue were double-billed in what was being dubbed The Crue&rsquo;s &ldquo;&rdquo;final tour&rdquo;&rdquo; (I&rsquo;m not sure I can put enough quotation marks around that). This proved to be the perfect opportunity to litmus test a lifetime&rsquo;s worth of evolving musical taste with two of rocks most iconic acts.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">Joined by two intrepid friends and my same ol&rsquo;, same ol&rsquo; ball-and-chain we ventured out to Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in St. Louis on an unseasonably perfect evening to unabashedly rawk out. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">After a high-energy, largely-ignored opening act called The Raskins it was time for Alice Cooper and man-oh-man did he deliver. In a tight hour of only his most popular songs AC never let up, constantly changing outfits and making sure the theatrics were turned up to 11. He sang with a snake, he flung beads, balloons and dollar bills into the audience, he sang in a straitjacket, he was decapitated by a guillotine, he turned into a 15-foot-tall monster, he sang with a bloody crutch for no apparent reason; the man was a relentless force of showmanship.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">His band was talented and fully invested as well, with smokin&rsquo;-hot lead guitarist Nita Strauss garnering the most attention. The girl can boast some serious shredding skills and what I can only assume are hundreds of nightly marriage proposals.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">After Alice strutted triumphantly off stage the roadies came out and began the arduous process of breaking down his elaborate set and putting up Motley Crue&rsquo;s even-that-much-more-elaborate set.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">The Crue have always trumpeted decadence; I mean, these are the guys who wrote &ldquo;Girls, Girls, Girls&rdquo; which has become the official strip-club national anthem. In many ways Motley Crue might be the most rock-n-roll band ever, and at the very least they can claim the greatest &ldquo;Behind the Music&rdquo; of all time.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">Vince Neil killed a guy, Nikki Sixx was clinically dead and came back to life, Tommy Lee and his enormous schwanzstucker laid waste to an entire generation of groupies and Mick Mars with his face-melting, guitar-god prowess and eyes that can pierce your soul is one of the most terrifying human beings to have ever walked the earth.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">With all this at play, the Motley Crue stage show is as gloriously insane as you would hope. There&rsquo;s FIRE! and EXPLOSIONS! and SLUTS! (I in no way use this term to intentionally demean or insinuate promiscuity regarding the scantily-clad dancers and background vocalists who are no doubt fine, upstanding members of their respective communities and surely represent the Motley Crue Tour with highest degree of integrity and professionalism) and SLUTS! and FLAMETHROWERS! and the repeated use of the word &ldquo;MOTHERFUCKER!&rdquo; and even more EXPLOSIONS! I was transported to 14-year-old-boy heaven.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">The band still sounds tremendous and they ripped through hits like &ldquo;Dr. Feelgood,&rdquo; &ldquo;Smokin&rsquo; in The Boys Room&rdquo; and the perfect &ldquo;Kickstart My Heart&rdquo; with pulse-pounding intensity.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">Unfortunately Vince Neil&rsquo;s vocals left a lot to be desired. Dude could still hit all the notes, he just sounded winded as his voice would drop in and out over the course of a song. Fortunately there was enough spectacle and raw tune-age to paper over his shortcomings.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">At any rate, it was impossible to say that the Crue didn&rsquo;t deliver and it was roundly agreed that our tickets were worth every penny we had spent on them.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">But surprisingly enough, when the smoke had all finally cleared it was Alice Cooper who had won the evening.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">Oh sure, AC never came close to the dizzying degrees of success that Motley Crue achieved over the course of their respective careers, and his discography pales in every possible comparison.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">But there was not a second of Alice Cooper&rsquo;s set that was wasted and he also never made me feel the momentary pangs of sadness I experienced during the Crue&rsquo;s nearly two hours on stage when you could see them reaching back to a more glorious past, not quite making it and then working even harder to convince us that they had.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">Even though they are roughly 15 years his junior you felt that Motley Crue&rsquo;s best days were behind them while Alice Cooper was occupying roughly the same space he always has.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">It certainly helps his case that Alice has always looked like he was in his mid-60s and that he was never that great of a singer, so it&rsquo;s impossible to tell if he&rsquo;s slipped any.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">It&rsquo;s just that on a night when Motley Crue went out of their way to insist that this would be the last time we saw them on a stage, it was clear that Alice Cooper wasn&rsquo;t planning on going anywhere. When all is said and done, I think I am OK with both of those things being true. &nbsp;</p>http://matsentertainment.com/post/2014/07/10/Speaking-loudly-in-the-general-direction-of-the-Devil-An-evening-with-Motley-Crue-and-Alice-Cooper.aspx
http://matsentertainment.com/post/2014/07/10/Speaking-loudly-in-the-general-direction-of-the-Devil-An-evening-with-Motley-Crue-and-Alice-Cooper.aspx#commenthttp://matsentertainment.com/post.aspx?id=00aeea10-dc87-46a5-bd48-c343bb7b9651Thu, 10 Jul 2014 15:44:00 -0800concert reviewsMat DeKinderhttp://matsentertainment.com/pingback.axdhttp://matsentertainment.com/post.aspx?id=00aeea10-dc87-46a5-bd48-c343bb7b96510http://matsentertainment.com/trackback.axd?id=00aeea10-dc87-46a5-bd48-c343bb7b9651http://matsentertainment.com/post/2014/07/10/Speaking-loudly-in-the-general-direction-of-the-Devil-An-evening-with-Motley-Crue-and-Alice-Cooper.aspx#commenthttp://matsentertainment.com/syndication.axd?post=00aeea10-dc87-46a5-bd48-c343bb7b9651Norah Jones delivers soulful, sleepy performance<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">Norah Jones is an extremely gifted musician. I feel I should just get that out of the way before delving much further into her performance at the Fox Theatre last week. I should also disclose that while her particular brand of jazz/folk/country is not my particular cup of tea, I did appreciate that Jones more than delivered the musical goods during her stop in St. Louis.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">I've been to many a concert in my day, and I must say upon entering the Fox it was immediately apparent that the crowd trended more to the type of people you would see at a symphony performance (i.e. very white, very upper-middle class) than at a recital of "popular music." The place was awash with Ralph Lauren and CK1.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">Opening up the show was solo artist M. Ward who was about as bland as dry toast. He opened his set with two duets with Jones, who proudly bucked the main-attraction trend of never slumming with the opening act. This move caught so many people off guard that I'm willing to bet that over 75 percent of the audience didn't even realize it was Jones on stage. Unfortunately after she exited, we were left with Ward and his one-man, tortured-music-school-performer act. You got the impression that this was the guy no one wants to get cornered by at a party unless you want to hear him prattle on about free markets or why the Beatles were overrated.</p>
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">Then came Jones and her backing band The Handsome Band. Decked-out in a cute little sun dress, Jones was, as always, strikingly beautiful, which raises an interesting question. If there was a woman with the exact musical talent and virtuosity as Jones, except wore a size-18 and had an overbite, would she enjoy the same acclaim? Considering you have to go all the way back to Mama Cass and Janis Joplin to find unattractive women with significant record sales, I'm going to say probably not.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">Jones is the daughter of sitar enthusiast and George Harrison influence Ravi Shankar, a factoid that is, well, more weird than anything else.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">Jones moved back and forth between guitar and piano during her low-key hour-and-a-half performance. Although it's her voice that is her best instrument. For those of you unfamiliar with Jones' music; imagine rock 'n' roll had never been invented and pop music was only allowed to be performed by Juilliard graduates. It's very beautiful, it's very peaceful, it's very clinical and if you're not paying attention, it will put you right to sleep.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">This is the type of music that is best served playing softly in the background while reading a good book. But after a full sensory assault of auditory valium, I could only find myself longing for something with a 4/4 beat and a drum solo.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">Jones herself was very warm and engaging with the audience, but much like her music, she lacked a certain spark. Even when performing her hit single "Don't Know Why" at the beginning of the encore, it was delivered with a refined precision that is only demanded by piano teachers.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">Maybe it's just me, but I think the best forms of creative expression don't feel like they came from a classroom. Instead it's Eddie Van Halen banging on a guitar in his parent's basement, or Jackson Pollock flinging paint in his barn, or Kurt Vonnegut cranking out short stories between used car sales.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">Perhaps I'm being a little unfair to Jones, who I'm sure is just as passionate about her music as anyone else, but it just seems that the thrill is gone - or maybe it was never there to begin with. However, she has already enjoyed more success and renown in her young life than most musicians can hope to garner in an entire career, so it's hard to argue with that.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; font-family: georgia;">There is certainly a deserved place in this world for the likes of Norah Jones, and I hope she continues topping those adult contemporary charts. But barring the need for a nap, I'll take my music with a pulse, please.</p>http://matsentertainment.com/post/2007/05/09/Norah-Jones-delivers-soulful-sleepy-performance.aspx
http://matsentertainment.com/post/2007/05/09/Norah-Jones-delivers-soulful-sleepy-performance.aspx#commenthttp://matsentertainment.com/post.aspx?id=0931289b-95f4-4646-84b4-24e8e0bc9b8bWed, 09 May 2007 14:12:00 -0800concert reviewsMat DeKinderhttp://matsentertainment.com/pingback.axdhttp://matsentertainment.com/post.aspx?id=0931289b-95f4-4646-84b4-24e8e0bc9b8b0http://matsentertainment.com/trackback.axd?id=0931289b-95f4-4646-84b4-24e8e0bc9b8bhttp://matsentertainment.com/post/2007/05/09/Norah-Jones-delivers-soulful-sleepy-performance.aspx#commenthttp://matsentertainment.com/syndication.axd?post=0931289b-95f4-4646-84b4-24e8e0bc9b8b